The faith of “Philomena” — an Oscar nominee not to be missed

Philomena Lee, the Irish woman whose search for the son that she gave up for adoption in the 1950s and the the subject of a Hollywood film called “Philomena,” visited Capitol Hill Jan. 30, 2014. to discuss adoption reforms (AP Photo)

I write to urge readers to see the film “Philomena” (or perhaps see it again).

It’s still being shown in art houses in Denver, probably because of the Oscar nomination for Judi Dench’s performance.

Richard Alleva, Commonweal’s film, critic claims that “paradoxically, with this story premised on the cruelty of a Catholic institution, the filmmakers have created the most Christian film since ‘Tender Mercies.’ ” I agree with his claim, about both films, but his review misses much about the depiction of faith in “Philomena.”

Thus, my title is deliberately ambiguous, hopefully suggesting both the faith embodied in the title character (played by Dench) and the complex depiction of faith running through the entire film.

Philomena Lee, on whose real story the film is based, is an elderly Irish widow attempting to come to terms with the forced loss of her first child, 50 years ago, at the hands of Catholic sisters. The story of such Magdalenes (as young unmarried and institutionalized mothers were called in Ireland and elsewhere) is widely known.

Yet the story of this mother, in the script written by co-star and producer, Steve Coogan, and enacted by Dench, is anything but just another story of outrage at institutions and systems (mainly the Catholic Church in Ireland).

Suffice to say here that the film’s title character remains a faithful Catholic, still deeply aware of personal sin, still attached to devotions and the sacraments. And very much a creature of her age and culture – a lover, for instance, of unsophisticated romance novels. Yet she is not reduced to some easy stereotype. Her love for her lost son is deep and formidable. Her own sense of guilt does not blind her to the guilt of the Sisters and the Church. Yet neither does that awareness lead her to rage. Rather to a quiet sense of compassion and, in the end, to difficult forgiveness.

Less able to forgive and more filled with outrage is the ex-Catholic and quite sophisticated British journalist who helps Philomena search for her son. As written and played by Coogan (based on journalist Martin Sixsmith’s original book), he senses a good expose that might restart a faltering career. If this acknowledged atheist has any faith, it is in the humanist effort to expose the flaws and hypocrisies of religion in the name of restoring justice.

Yet, here too, the film avoids easy stereotypes. Indeed the real center of the drama is the ongoing interaction between the two lead characters – a dialectic of mutual influence that leads to gradual and believable (non-romantic, non-miraculous) change in each.

Sixsmith’s investigative skill and critical passion emboldens Philomena’s search and gives courage and even cunning to her faith. Yet Philomena’s love drives the search, and her “simple” faith sustains it — even for Sixsmith. There is no simple conversion. He remains an angry atheist. Yet he nonetheless is drawn into Philomena’s love, touched by her quiet courage, and shaken in the end by her remarkable forgiveness.

There are stereotypical representations of faith in the film. The depiction of the older generation of nuns responsible for managing the Magdalene system shows them rigidly self-righteous, and of the contemporary generation responsible for the ongoing cover-up as smooth and pseudo-compassionate. (The latter is clearly evocative of the behavior of too many Catholic Bishops in the clergy sex-abuse crisis.)

And these widespread stereotypes of certain forms of religious faith are accurate enough and provide a telling backdrop to the more complex and real central drama.

The filmmakers have indeed “created the most Christian film since ‘Tender Mercies,’ ” or at least one such film. For the film becomes a parable for contemporary faith – precisely the kind of Catholicism (and Christianity) that Pope Francis continually calls for. A faith that goes into the streets of the world, gets roughed up there, even as it brings witness and transformation.

Or, put more abstractly, the challenge for contemporary faith (and not just Christian faith) is to move out of self-righteous enclaves, to engage modern secularity and criticism, to learn and grow from such engagement – even as it can on occasion challenge and change the comfortably rigid enclaves of secularity and criticism which one finds so often in media and cinema, as also in academe and politics.

I hope Dame Judi gets her Oscar. She deserves it for a brilliant performance which radiates from within her spirit onto the smallest inflections of her marvelous face. Yet for me the real star of the piece is Coogan who, as far as I can tell, remains in real life an ex-Catholic atheist.

He has written a script that gets at the complexity and challenge of modern faith, for both the religious person and the humanist. And his acting gets at the subtlety of that challenge, not simply by providing a wonderful counter to Dench’s Philomena, but also through a believable depiction of both secular courage and personal transformation.

Where is your moral compass pointing? What are your social values? Hark will explore faith, morals, ethics and character at the intersection of religion ethics, culture, politics, media, science, education, economics and philosophy. At times this blog will alert readers to breaking news and trends. At times it will attempt to look more deeply into intriguing subjects. Hark means to listen attentively, and we will, as readers talk back to the news.